texture coordinate node in blender - how to control textures with it
I believe you should be using the Generated coordinates for this rather than Object. The Generated coordinates range from 0.0 to 1.0 over the range of the object whereas the Object coordinates are in "object space" with 0 at the origin and positive values on one side of each axis and negative at the other - this is why you're seeing an oposite reflected image. You should then be able to scale it without seeing the reflected second image.

You should also set your Image Texture node Projection mode from Flat to Sphere.